Thatdirtykid wrote:I lost 25 lbs in the last 4 months, my diet, not enough money for food and high stress levels...

(I cant wait to gain that weight back, I had just finally gotten to the higher side of the ideal weight for my height, now I am back to gross to look at underweight...)

You were pretty damn skinny to start with. You must look emaciated.

I am noticbly skinnier, but most of the weight I lost was muscle, which is sad. I am now on the free mexican food diet and am gaining my weight back fine. Also started running and doing light workouts again. (I will have acess to my rec center gym again in a couple days, mabey I should buff out)

My wife is doing the online Weight Watchers point system and I think it's $16/month. She doesn't go to any meetings or anything.

Basically all it does is assign a point value to all foods based on the number of calories, fat content and amount of fibre they contain. You get a certain number of points per day based on your weight and you get a number of bonus points to use throuout the week. So you may get 25 points per day and then a bonus 35 to use through the week as you see fit. Any exercise you do will give you more points for the day, too.

The negatives I see are that while it does promote you eating healthy foods (many veggies are 0 points), it doesn't necessarily promote a balenced diet, but it doesn't promote a non-balenced diet either. In other words does provide the flexability to allow you to eat a balenced diet if you track that yourself. We haven't found that to be a problem at all.

What I've found it's done is shown us which foods are worth splurging on and which ones aren't. We eat a lot less cheese than we did before and we pay attention to which salad dressings we eat, too. Many times we'll choose a lower calorie salad dressing if we want dessert, or skip dessert if we want to drink beer or wine that evening.

Portion control is also a big way to save points. Choosing a 6 oz steak instead of a 10 oz may save you enough points for a couple of beers and we've found that we don't miss (and never really needed) the extra food. It's not too hard to turn one restaurant visit into two meals, either.

As an alternative, if you don't mind tracking more things yourself, you can do the same thing on www.fitday.com for free. You'll have to figure out how many calories you use per day yourself and what percentage of carbs, protien and fat you want to maintain, so it's extra work, but can be a better planning tool than Weight Watchers. You can also use it for weight gaining if you're looking to bulk up.

TexasOutlaw wrote:How many points is beer? It sounds like I may be fasting....

2-3 points, depending on how light or dark it is. If you're serious about losing weight, you'll probably have to cut down on the beer, along with everything else that isn't great for you. It's really all about moderation.

My old Taco Bell lunch order of 2 grilled stuffed burritos was like 42 points. 7 more than I was allowed in a day when I started. Double whoppers are like 29 points. Monster burgers are nuts points, but Hardees chicken strips are 1 point a piece. It's the only fast food (besides McD's salads) that I ate. And I was too young to drink...

I went from 205 last november at 16% body fat to 196lbs today at 10% body fat.

Off to the gym three times a week, and do over 20 miles a day on the bike.

Training for the triathlon I think really kicked my ass in gear.

Currently helping the girlfriend get back into shape through cycling. She's having a hard time on the 15 mile rides, but she's doing her share. The only thing I can recommend to everyone that wants to lose weight/gain muscle/get in shape is NO MORE THAN 1LB A WEEK! Anything more and it's not healthy. Also, make sure the weight you're losing is not muscle. A quick way to do this is go to the gym and do light weights with a lot of reps. To gain muscle, heavy weight and low reps.

If you guys are interested in cycling as a weight-loss method, PM me or contact me through the various ways. I'll help as much as I can.

I went from 235 down to 180 in like 3-4 months, also on the 'divorce diet.'

i thought i would gain it back in no time, but i leveled off at 185 2 months ago, and it seems no matter how much i eat/drink my body is starting to take care of its self with a little bit of exersise.